The present invention relates to an orthodontic assessment of a patient. More specifically, the present invention relates to a system and a method for determining an orthodontic diagnostic analysis of a patient at various dental maturity stages with predictions of future conditions and/or treatment recommendations.
It is generally known to provide dental care to a patient. Typically, the patient may seek care from a professional at an office visit. The professional may be, for example, a dentist, an orthodontist or other type of oral health care provider. The professional may examine the patient using various techniques. Such techniques may be imaging and/or x-raying the oral area and/or the jaws. After reaching a diagnosis, the professional may then provide the patient with an oral appliance to correct the condition of the patient. In addition to the oral appliance, the professional may provide the patient with instructions for exercises to perform while wearing the oral appliance. The exercises may cause, for example, the teeth to move toward a corrected position and may assist in correcting a malocclusion.
Diagnostic decisions may often be made by a single look at the patient by the professional. The professional may estimate what may be present in the dentition of the patient. The examination may not entail a deeper and/or more detailed study. However, the thoroughness of the examination may seriously impact the future of the patient. For example, the individual deciding the best alternative for a patient may have little understanding of how future development of the various problems may influence the outcome of the future health of a patient. Several analytical procedures that may be significant may seldom be used to make a diagnosis for a patient. The patient may ultimately suffer as a result. A typical example may be an arch-length analysis. The arch-length measurement may accurately predict if sufficient room may be available to straighten crowded teeth and/or rotated teeth. However, the arch-length analysis may be time consuming for the professional. As a result, some arch-length analyses may provide an inaccurate assessment.
Another important consideration in the assessment of the dental health of the patient may be the age of the patient. For example, dental maturity may be generally categorized into five age groups of which four groups may be segregated according to dental maturity stages. The four stages may be the full deciduous dentition from about two years of age or three years of age up to about five and one-half years of age or six years of age. The permanent lower incisors may begin to erupt at about five and one-half years of age to six and one-half years of age. The period during which the adult incisors may begin and finish their full eruption may be at about seven years of age or eight years of age may be called the transitional period. The next dental maturity stage may be called the mixed-dentition period when the other permanent teeth, such as, for example, canines, first premolars, second premolars and the permanent second molars may erupt into place. This period may last from about eight years of age to twelve years of age. The next dental maturity stage may be the adult dentition where twenty-eight permanent teeth may be fully erupted and where jaw growth may still be active up to about eighteen years of age in a female and about twenty years of age in a male. The final dental maturity stage may be during the adult dentition after most of the jaw growth may be complete. Although both males and females grow slightly after this period, this minimal growth is not generally important for orthodontic treatment.
Most orthodontics may be done during the late mixed stage and the early adult dentition from about eleven years of age to thirteen years of age. Some orthodontics may be done during the mixed dentition after the permanent upper and lower permanent incisors may be erupted. Orthodontics are infrequently used before or during the eruption of the adult incisors. Performing orthodontics during the transitional eruption period may have the advantage that the teeth may be aligned before the collagenous fibers may be formed. The orthodontics may minimize relapse tendencies and may lessen the length of treatment to about twenty percent of the average time consumed for fixed orthodontics for patients of eleven years of age to thirteen years of age.
Treatment with fixed and/or removable appliances during the transitional period on patients of six years of age to eight years of age and earlier on patients of two years of age to six years of age may be beneficial in malocclusion treatment. The early period with patients of two years of age to six years of age may be recommended for sleep-disordered breathing problems. The treatment may either advance the mandible and tongue or may prevent the lower jaw from displacing posteriorly while sleeping. The treatment may teach the patient to breathe through the nose instead of the mouth which may correct the snoring and may improve the behavioral symptoms caused by breathing problems.
Child patients that may have a prominent mandible may be helped at a young age by treatment to slow adverse changes that may occur during the growing years. Further types of correction that may improve breathing may entail improving abnormal swallowing, correcting anterior open bites, correcting a narrowed maxilla and improving speech problems. Such early problems may have significant effects on the future health and well-being of the patient.
In general dentistry, oral surgery, maxillofacial surgery and/or orthodontics, malocclusions may be assessed clinically or radiographically using cephalometrics. One such common condition of a malocclusion may be overbite, in which the top teeth and/or the lower teeth of the patient do not align properly. Cephalometric analysis may be the most accurate way of determining types of malocclusions, since such analysis may include assessments of skeletal body, occlusal plane angulation, facial height, soft tissue assessment and anterior dental angulation. Various calculations and assessments of the information in a cephalometric radiograph may allow the clinician to objectively determine dental relationships and/or skeletal relationships and determine a plan of correction.
If a non-surgical alternative may produce results comparable with those that may be achieved surgically, then the professional may consider and/or may suggest such a non-surgical approach to the patient. In some cases, a non-surgical approach may be the preferred choice of the professional and/or the patient.
For example, facial growth modification may be an effective method of resolving skeletal Class III jaw discrepancies in growing children. Dentofacial orthopedic appliances may be used. Orthognathic surgery in conjunction with orthodontic care may be required for the correction of malocclusions in an adult patient.
A need, therefore, exists for a system and a method for determining an orthodontic diagnostic analysis of a patient at various dental maturity stages with predictions of future conditions and/or treatment recommendations. A need also exists for a system and a method that may use a computer for determining an orthodontic diagnostic analysis of a patient at various dental maturity stages with predictions of future conditions and/or treatment recommendations. A need also exists for a system and a method for determining an orthodontic diagnostic analysis of a patient at various dental maturity stages with predictions of future conditions and/or treatment recommendations that may use an oral appliance.